I’m happy to welcome award-winning author Bethany Maines. Today, Bethany shares her new release, Elevator Ride.

Here’s Bethany!

In my forthcoming novel, Elevator Ride, Rowan Valkyrie has put in his twenty years of service with the Marines and retired to start his own security firm. Rowan has been the stable “adult” of the family since he was eleven, but that kind of responsibility means there isn’t a lot of time to focus on his own needs. At forty-four he’s never been married and isn’t sure how to deal with a life where his brothers are successful, his mother is stable, his business is booming, and basically everything is… fine. Which of course means it’s time for the author (insert me cracking my knuckles) to introduce a love interest. Vivian Kaye – spit fire paralegal – is also searching for how to craft the next phase of her life. Vivian feels stymied at work, but also doesn’t know how to take her volunteering with a veteran focused non-profit to the next level. Together, Rowan and Vivian have to figure out where they’re going as individuals and as a couple, and of course, where to hide from the bullets when the villains show up.

Here are ten things I learned doing research for Elevator Ride:

1. The Veteran suicide rate is too damn high. One is too many, but we lose over 17 a day to suicide. My heroine volunteers for a non-profit focused on veteran’s mental health and my research was smack in the face. The numbers are staggering. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in veterans under 45 and suicide among veteran women is nearly double that of non-vets. Learn more here: https://stopsoldiersuicide.org/vet-stats

2.Nobody wants to make their will, but we all should. Part of my plot hinges on whether or not a will got signed. Don’t be a plot point. Get a will – https://www.freewill.com/

3. How to open an elevator door from inside the elevator shaft – So it turns out that the movies lied to us. You can’t just pry open doors from inside the elevator shaft. Which makes sense because otherwise idiots would pry them open from the front side, but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed.

4. The cost of apartments in Seattle – Since it’s been a hot minute since I was a renter and I never rented in Seattle (it was too expensive back then and it’s even worse now!), I spent a lot of time on the real estate websites looking at apartments. Conclusions… My rich characters would live in some pretty swank places, but my poor characters would definitely be sweating the rent. The rent levels are comparable to New York City!

5. How to make paper poppy flowers. The problem with being a writer is that once you dream up a craft for your gala planning committee to do then you have to go see if they could actually do it. Which then resulted in me making poppy flowers because… crafts!

6. Nicknames for Marines. There are a lot. Jarhead, grunts, leathernecks, gyrenes… the list goes on. Who knew?

7. Chipped Ham. And speaking of Marines, they eat something called Chipped Ham. Why? Possibly as some kind of ongoing torture experiment. Research is unclear. However, research is clear on it being disgusting.

8. Texting styles. Since my characters cover a spread of years, they have different generational habits regarding texting and their mother uses the dreaded Boomer Ellipses. My hero, Rowan, being the tail end of Gen X likes to use punctuation, while his youngest brother can’t figure out why Rowan is being so passive aggressive.

9. The cost of lingerie. My heroine enjoys wearing fancy lingerie and since I work from home in my sweats that took some research. Surprisingly, a fairly fancy set can still be had for the $75 or less range.

10. Monster Energy Drinks. This one was a bit weird, but soldiers seem to exist on caffeine and nicotine, and at some point several of my veteran characters ended up commenting on their favorite Monster flavor. Since I prefer more authorly caffeine like tea and matcha, I had to go look up what I was missing. That led down a rabbit hole of how much caffeine is too much. For the record the USDA recommends no more than 400 milligrams.

About the Book

Elevator Ride – Vivian Kaye has been tasked with serving a cease-and-desist letter to Rowan Valkyrie—the most hated tenant in Seattle’s Hoskins building. But when the ambitious paralegal ambushes the seasoned security expert in the elevator, she ignites a powder keg of tempers and attraction. Rowan and Vivian clash like only a twenty-something progressive and a forty-something ex-Marine can, but when one misstep sends Vivian flailing into Rowan’s arms, the pair also find themselves tumbling into a secret office romance. Vivian is soon head-over-heels for the older CEO, but worries that he might not take her seriously. But before Rowan can fix things, a shocking attack puts Vivian in the cross-hairs of a mysterious assailant. Heartbroken, Vivian is determined to deny her feelings and put all her energy into catching her attacker. And Rowan is desperate to protect Vivian because unless he can push all the right buttons, this elevator ride might be going straight down.

Amazon Buy Link

About the Author

Bethany Maines is the award-winning indie and traditionally published author of romantic action-adventure and fantasy novels that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind-end. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter or glued to the computer working on her next novel or screenplay.

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